Are you ready to take the challenge?
The good news is that changing your life isn’t complicated.
The bad news is that changing your life isn’t complicated—and so we rarely do it.
None of what I’m about to share is difficult. None of them are things you don’t already know.
But that doesn’t mean they’re easy.
And most importantly, it doesn’t mean that you’ll actually follow through.
That’s why I believe this challenge will help a lot. With this recipe, you’re truly going to take action and see what it does for your life.
Now, obviously, there are countless ways to change your life. But to me, there are certain things that create a massive domino effect on everything else—they make a huge impact with the least amount of effort.
So for the next week, here are six things I want you to do:
No Social Media
In a lot of my writing, it might seem that I’m against social media, but I actually think it’s an incredible gift to the world.
It has never been easier to communicate with friends and family around the world thanks, in large part, to social media. (It gives us access to so many people at the click of a button).
The problem, however, is that social media is rarely used that way. Instead, research shows it’s often used for comparison and judgment; on top of that, the algorithms are intentionally designed to be addictive.
Ultimately, we spent hours every day thumbing through feeds and seeing useless information that actually holds us back because it stresses us, upsets us, or distracts us from things that are far more important.
Years ago, I forced myself to cut social media and it was a struggle. I felt like a smoker trying to cut cigarettes—and I wanted to check it for reasons I didn’t understand.
After two weeks, I stopped checking and I never had so much free time in my life.
So for the next week, I challenge you to stop all social media: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok (I actually don’t know what it is), etc. You can use their messaging services to chat with friends, but no feeds, no stories, no updates, no comments… no nothing.
Also, if something happens to you, do not share it on your social media. (It’ll feel weird at first if you’re not used to it.)
The world doesn’t need to know that you’re changing your life. After all, you’re changing your life for yourself, not anyone else.
It’s hard, but it’s worth it. At the end of the week, you can go back if you’d like. But maybe—just maybe—you’ll realize you didn’t miss it as much as you thought. (And let’s not forget that people have existed just fine for thousands of years before the advent of social media.)
No News
Yes, sometimes the news is helpful, but it’s very rare.
For the most part, mainstream news constantly plants the seeds of futility, strife, conflict, controversy, and hatred every single day — despite the unequivocal fact that this is, by far, the best time to be alive in human history.
Ironically, the people I know who watch the news most of all live their lives in perpetual fear. (It’s so bizarre: They’re terrified, yet they enjoy being terrified… so they watch more of it.)
As a former journalist, I’ve been on the other side. CNN, NBC, CBS, New York Times, Huffington Post, etc. are all for-profit organizations. They have a quota. They have to create a certain amount of stories every day (and get a certain amount of engagement) because there are billion-dollar advertisers who are paying a lot of money for views.
We believe they’re being “unbiased,” but there is a stunning lack of journalistic integrity nowadays. If you watch any show on these news networks, hosts just ask loaded questions, use strawman arguments, and wax poetic on unsubstantiated stories.
On top of that, most “news” is purposeless anyway. The vast majority of stories don’t affect you and are things you couldn’t possibly change directly or indirectly. The result?
You just get pissed, upset, scared, worried, or saddened by something that you didn’t really need to know.
Some of you might disagree with me. That’s fine. But as the saying goes, “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.”
For one week, cut out all news. No newspapers. No online sites. No Medium news. (It’ll be easier to do this after you cut social media.)
You might feel lost at first. But as the days go on, don’t be surprised if you miss it less and less.
Put Your Phone on Airplane Mode When Not in Use
Have you ever been around someone whose phone goes off every 15 seconds?
There’s constantly some kind of notification, email, text, etc. blowing up their phone. But it’s like they have a newborn baby in their pocket.
How on Earth can anyone focus or have uninterrupted thoughts with that many distractions?
I’ve written about this before, but it’s really imperative, especially in 2022 and beyond, that we find ways to slow down. Uninterrupted moments where we can think clearly, contemplate, and rest are becoming rarer and rarer. Worse, there’s always stress in the background because we’re conditioned to expect another notification at any minute.
Hell, we don’t even put our phones on Airplane Mode in a plane, when the flight attendants ask us to!
All the more reason for you to try this challenge.
When you’re not immediately using your phone—texting, calling, checking email, etc.—put it on Airplane mode. Let people learn to wait. They won’t die because you texted them back two hours later.
And enjoy the serenity.
Handwrite a “Win List”
I’ve written a lot about gratitude journals and the importance of regularly expressing gratitude.
If you haven’t done a gratitude journal before, I highly recommend adding one to the end of your day. Simply write down a few things that you’re grateful for (which happened on that specific day).
But I have a twist for you.
Recently, I’ve been writing something called a “wins list,” and it has helped me tremendously. This lesson comes from Brian and Carrie Grasso, two mindset coaches.
The idea is, again, not complicated: At the end of each day, handwrite a list of all your “wins,” no matter how big or small.
A “win” is something that moves you closer to your goals.
A big win could be something like getting a promotion. (But those don’t happen very often.)
But then there are small things like doing research on a project, picking up the phone and calling someone, emailing your mentor, reading a helpful article, jogging for 20 minutes, etc.
These are all wins! WRITE THEM DOWN! 🙂 (Do not poo-poo your wins!)
The value of this compared to a gratitude journal is that your “wins list” is full of things you consciously do—your actions. Gratitude journals are more about serendipitous things that happen, which may or may not include wins.
By keeping this list, you start seeing the positive things you do every day. And as you do it more, you actually train your unconscious to start seeing more wins throughout your days, which creates a positive reinforcing cycle.
You build more momentum, you build more self-confidence, and you grow faster.
(FWIW, I do both a wins list and a gratitude journal.)
Now, at first, you might say, “I don’t have any wins today.” But usually, that’s because you’re only thinking about “big wins.”
You’re reading this article, aren’t you? That’s a win.
Drink At Least 2 Liters of Water*
Drinking water is one of the easiest things you can do to improve your health, mood, energy, and more. Many people laud its impact on your skin health. It can even improve your digestive function. (Fiber binds to water so having a good fluid intake can help you stay regular.)
Buy a refillable liter bottle and drink two of them throughout your day. It doesn’t get any easier than this. One easy way to get a lot more water into your day is, right after you wake up, to drink a big glass. (You’re probably super thirsty anyway.)
A few caveats. *If you’re a woman, 1.5 liters should probably be good enough. Also, if you’re going to exercise or spend a lot of time in the heat, you need to drink more water to compensate.
You’ll probably pee a lot when you start just because you’re not used to it, but you’ll quickly acclimate.
(FWIW, cups and ounces never made sense to me. But for those who care, 2 liters a little more than half a gallon.)
Create a Morning Ritual
Whether it’s just 10 minutes or an hour, carving out some time for yourself in the morning will do wonders for your life.
How do you start something is usually how you finish it. So if you have a strong start to your day, you’ll have a lot of momentum for the rest of the day.
But if you start poorly, you’ll feel like you’re behind and it’ll be a lot harder to catch up.
The core purpose for having a morning routine is to put yourself into a peak state in the morning — so you can then operate from that state for the rest of your day. Rather than being reactive, addicted, and unconscious in your morning, it’s far better to proactively put yourself in a peak state in a ritualistic manner… Why? Because you need to trigger a state above your old and common ways of acting. If you want a different life, you must be a different person. Your morning ritual is what triggers a peak state. That state then reminds you of who you want to be and how you want to act.
— Benjamin Hardy, Ph.D.
What you actually do in your morning routine is up to you (so you don’t have to wake up at 5am), but I highly, highly encourage you to do something that specifically motivates and inspires you.
That could be reading a certain book, going for a jog, meditating, reviewing your goals, etc. As long as it puts you into a state of “flow” that you can access for the rest of the day, I promise by the end of the week, your life will be a lot different.
As the saying goes:
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
— Will Durant
Good luck.
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